Can phenomena like drug trafficking in Colombia, be thought as actions in which individual rationality prevails?
From a purely business perspective, I assume that drug trafficking can be run more or less rationally. The strong component of violence in the drug business does, however, have the potential for undermining rationality. In a recent study about kidnapping in civil wars, you emphasize on the Colombian case. Do you see Colombia as a civil war or as an armed conflict? What is particular about the Colombian case, which makes it different from other violent contexts? Whether you see the violence in Colombia as part of a civil war or of an armed conflict depends on how you assess the motives of the participants. For an outsider, it is difficult to judge whether the FARC remains a social movement or whether it is by now essentially a mafia. What makes Colombia special is that drug money provides an essentially unlimited access to weapons and other prerequisites of warfare. In a case like the Colombian one, how do you solve the tension between institutional stability and the wish the majority h
